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Get familiar with the reaction system: Introducing the Reaction System
Generic capacitor (red MKP from China)
So I took a chance on some very cheap poly caps - they occasionally get mentioned on various forums etc. Anyways, I purchased a buttload of them of different values, and thought I would share my findings with ya'll.
First off, a picture:
They are very attractive red color, with a cute nod towards German capacitors as part of their name. According to the nameplate, they are a poly cap, 400V, 3% tolerance. The leads are 0,8mm (~20awg) and are tinned. My highly scientific test of holding a lead to the magnet on a driver indicates they are not ferrous - they did not stick to the magnet. The skeptic in me wants to proclaim they are aluminum or some other such nonsense - but a scrape test reveals they are actually tinned copper.
The epoxy end caps are a good color match, and of the ten of this value are generally flush more or less. None of them have excessive overhang of the over-wrap, the epoxy is all smooth with no wrinkles or runs.
So far, so good for a $1.60 cap.Good looks, nice on-paper specs, well built. How do they measure? Well, I took capacitance measurements using my internally calibrated DER-EE DE-5000. Here are the results of the ten:
Any way you slice it, that is tight. Like tighter than tight. Every single cap is well within 1% tolerance, never mind the 3% advertised. This is a fairly elite level of tolerance - for example, a 10% cap could measure anywhere from ~5uF to 6.2uF. A 5% cap could be anywhere from 5.3 to 5.9uF. Not a single one of this batch of ten exceeds 1% from advertised.
How do they sound? Not going there. Tony Gee has a pretty hilarious page dedicated to caps where he covers a relative of these, you can seek it out if you want. I think he is pretty much full of shit - someday I plan on putting together a spreadsheet that can predict with a high degree of accuracy his cap rating system, YMMV
I am not going to clutter this post with additional graphics - but the 3.3uF and 4.7uF all measured within 1.5% (most within the 1%), as well.
Anyways, for an affordable way to load up the inventory - I can recommend these. Find them on Ebay.
First off, a picture:
They are very attractive red color, with a cute nod towards German capacitors as part of their name. According to the nameplate, they are a poly cap, 400V, 3% tolerance. The leads are 0,8mm (~20awg) and are tinned. My highly scientific test of holding a lead to the magnet on a driver indicates they are not ferrous - they did not stick to the magnet. The skeptic in me wants to proclaim they are aluminum or some other such nonsense - but a scrape test reveals they are actually tinned copper.
The epoxy end caps are a good color match, and of the ten of this value are generally flush more or less. None of them have excessive overhang of the over-wrap, the epoxy is all smooth with no wrinkles or runs.
So far, so good for a $1.60 cap.Good looks, nice on-paper specs, well built. How do they measure? Well, I took capacitance measurements using my internally calibrated DER-EE DE-5000. Here are the results of the ten:
Any way you slice it, that is tight. Like tighter than tight. Every single cap is well within 1% tolerance, never mind the 3% advertised. This is a fairly elite level of tolerance - for example, a 10% cap could measure anywhere from ~5uF to 6.2uF. A 5% cap could be anywhere from 5.3 to 5.9uF. Not a single one of this batch of ten exceeds 1% from advertised.
How do they sound? Not going there. Tony Gee has a pretty hilarious page dedicated to caps where he covers a relative of these, you can seek it out if you want. I think he is pretty much full of shit - someday I plan on putting together a spreadsheet that can predict with a high degree of accuracy his cap rating system, YMMV
I am not going to clutter this post with additional graphics - but the 3.3uF and 4.7uF all measured within 1.5% (most within the 1%), as well.
Anyways, for an affordable way to load up the inventory - I can recommend these. Find them on Ebay.
I have a signature.
Comments
Get them here:
http://www.futurlec.com/CapPolypropylene.shtml
Note that the yellow caps are squished flat like in the photo at the link above, not round.
These are a different type of poly, smaller voltage and wider advertised tolerance - but for $126 a guy could score a lot of values in one shipment.
Then again, I am a component junkie so...
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Then I discovered I had to jump through hoops to make it work on a modern operating system.
After I realized Dayton was never going to make it right, I took the damn apart and took some pictures of cold solder joints and sent them to Dayton, and received a "You don't know what you are talking about" response.
Similar to how Dayton treated those of us who bought a "calibrated" mic from them. They finally made that one right, though. They flat out ignored the mountain of evidence presented for a few years, however - and acted like they were engaging in some magnanimous gesture by re-calibrating the devices.
So yeah, between the near-criminal marketing of flawed hardware, wanting to charge people for upgrades that had no reason not being included in the first place, and the actual price tag - I hate DATS.
I have a "tolerate/hate" relationship with Dayton/PE. I like some of their drivers, dislike how they treat customers who have legitimate complaints about some of their products, have suffered four plate amp failures including two of the 240W models that developed a grating noise - a known issue affecting these amps that Dayton will not acknowledge - and had a weird experience on their "design team".
I guess perhaps I lack politics when reviewing things - pragmatism and honesty when evaluating something is not overly welcome by most sellers.
Anyways, I am not a fan of DATS
I also have love/hate relationship with PE, had some bad lepai amps they wouldnt do anything for me and a big issue with ordering stuff and they didnt have it (said in stock when ordered). I needed it all asap 1 day with rush charge. They shipped it even though a primary part wasnt in stock so i therefore i wouldnt have needed 1 day express shipping or i would have ordered else where. I didnt realize it wasnt coming until i got it but figured id just wait for my part in a week or two. They charged me the rush and 1day air AGAIN. Plus neither was over $100 when they shipping so it was more after they brome it up! I had to call and argue to get it all sorted out.
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